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Monday, May 16, 2005

A FINE TOOTH COMB

Apologies for a technical inaccuracy in yesterday's post on The Aphex Twin. I said that there was no analogue equivalent of the digital five-comb filter, which obviously isn't correct:

(Note the multi-coloured retro plastic finish. This particular beauty is currently on eBay with a reserve of £1500. Apparently, it used to reside in Rick Wakeman's studio where it was used to devastating effect on "Journey to the Centre of The Earth"...until his hair started thinning.)

A bit more research threw up some other, older analogue comb-filter devices such as The Nit Comb (a filter favoured by the likes of Thomas Dolby and Guru Josh):

This vintage early Seventies model is The Afro-Comb:

It was hand-made by a small American company and only a handful were ever built. Customers included Moog-abusing Stevie Wonder collaborators Malcolm Cecil and Robert Margouleff of Tontos Expanding Head Band: